Friday, March 20, 2009

Why Was It Named A Man FOR ALL SEASONS?

Yesterday we went to see A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS play at The Theater In The Square. I thought I remembered A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS a story about the growing pains of America in its formative years – a movie I heard about in the 1960s – or so I thought. In other words, I thought there would be plenty of horses and shooting.

The play was about King Henry the VII and his scheme to leave his Spanish royalty wife because she hadn’t given birth to a son for him and marry someone else. The ‘someone else’ was not part of the play. The Catholic Church did not approve of King Henry’s divorce, so he, more or less, left the Catholic Church, and created a church that would condone is divorce, which was the Church of England.

Back to the play in a moment.

In the lobby before we went in we were near a little middle age bantam rooster looking guy … all wrapped up in himself, telling his date that he hopes and prays no one assassinate Obama.

“How nice” I thought. “while he is in office, anyway.” He added. “What a shit head” I thought.He went on to say if he is assassinated in office he would be martyr and “We don’t want that.”He went on to say that he is waiting to the end of March when all the 401Ks hit the bottom and the people get riled up…and the economy goes in a downward spiral again – he said, that is what he “is waiting for.” Not only is he waiting for it, he is wishing for it."Asshole!" I thought.

He wants the economy of the U.S. to collapse just to make Obama look bad. I could tell the guy thought he was very patriotic.

Now, the play: The play was basically the mental struggle of Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor of England, which was the highest office of the Catholic Church is England, which that position also served as chief adviser of the King.

His position in the church could not condone the King’s action, but instead of saying so, he chose to resign his position. Most of the play was about was he speaking out against the King if he did not speak at all. They went around and around that subject approaching it from several angles and rewording it……. On and on… then suddenly two emergency lights on each side of the audience went on and all other lights went out. It could only mean one thing, a power failure – that used to happen at the post office all the time… the power goes out and instantly the emergency battery lights come on. Then the theater lights on the stage came on and the play was resumed. And the endless theories of is silence disapproval? Went on and on.

If one disagreed with the King it could be considered treason and punishable by death, so by all means Sir Thomas More wanted to be sure no one said he disagreed with the King - I mean having principles is one thing and keeping your head is something else.

I heard a distance nose in the background. I thought it was a generator. But the more I listened the more I think it was the sound of several people snoring.

The actors were superb. They were all very convincing. They new their lines and how to deliver them like it was really the characters talking. I wondered if the bad guy ever convinced some people in the audience he really was a rotten scoundrel and a few wait outside the actors exit door in the alley… some with roses and others with a baseball bat to “knock a little sense” in the “bad-guy” head?